In 

mathematics, topology (from the Greek words τόπος, 'place, location', and λόγος, 'study') is

concerned with the properties of a geometric object that are preserved
under continuous deformations, such as stretching, twisting, crumpling, and bending; that is, without
closing holes, opening holes, tearing, gluing, or passing through itself.
A topological space is a set endowed with a structure, called a topology, which allows defining
continuous deformation of subspaces, and, more generally, all kinds of continuity. Euclidean spaces,
and, more generally, metric spaces are examples of a topological space, as any distance or metric
defines a topology. The deformations that are considered in topology
are homeomorphisms and homotopies. A property that is invariant under such deformations is
a topological property. Basic examples of topological properties are: the dimension, which allows
distinguishing between a line and a surface; compactness, which allows distinguishing between a
line and a circle; connectedness, which allows distinguishing a circle from two non-intersecting
circles.
The ideas underlying topology go back to Gottfried Leibniz, who in the 17th century envisioned
the geometria situs and analysis situs. Leonhard Euler's Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem
and polyhedron formula are arguably the field's first theorems. The term topology was introduced
by Johann Benedict Listing in the 19th century, although it was not until the first decades of the 20th
century that the idea of a topological space was developed.

A three-dimensional depiction of a thickened trefoil knot, the simplest non-trivial knot

Contents

 1Motivation

 2History

 3Concepts

o 3.1Topologies on sets

o 3.2Continuous functions and homeomorphisms

o 3.3Manifolds

 4Topics

o 4.1General topology
 o 4.2Algebraic topology

o 4.3Differential topology

o 4.4Geometric topology

o 4.5Generalizations

 5Applications

o 5.1Biology

o 5.2Computer science

o 5.3Physics

o 5.4Robotics

o 5.5Games and puzzles

o 5.6Fiber art

 6See also

 7References

o 7.1Citations

o 7.2Bibliography

 8Further reading

 9External links

Motivation[edit]
The motivating insight behind topology is that some geometric problems depend not on the exact
shape of the objects involved, but rather on the way they are put together. For example, the square
and the circle have many properties in common: they are both one dimensional objects (from a
topological point of view) and both separate the plane into two parts, the part inside and the part
outside.
In one of the first papers in topology, Leonhard Euler demonstrated that it was impossible to find a
route through the town of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) that would cross each of its seven bridges
exactly once. This result did not depend on the lengths of the bridges or on their distance from one
another, but only on connectivity properties: which bridges connect to which islands or riverbanks.
This Seven Bridges of Königsberg problem led to the branch of mathematics known as graph theory.
A continuous deformation (a type of homeomorphism) of a mug into a doughnut (torus) and of a (holeless) cow
into a sphere

Similarly, the hairy ball theorem of algebraic topology says that "one cannot comb the hair flat on a
hairy ball without creating a cowlick." This fact is immediately convincing to most people, even
though they might not recognize the more formal statement of the theorem, that there is no
nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field on the sphere. As with the Bridges of Königsberg, the
result does not depend on the shape of the sphere; it applies to any kind of smooth blob, as long as
it has no holes.
To deal with these problems that do not rely on the exact shape of the objects, one must be clear
about just what properties these problems do rely on. From this need arises the notion of
homeomorphism. The impossibility of crossing each bridge just once applies to any arrangement of
bridges homeomorphic to those in Königsberg, and the hairy ball theorem applies to any space
homeomorphic to a sphere.
Intuitively, two spaces are homeomorphic if one can be deformed into the other without cutting or
gluing. A traditional joke is that a topologist cannot distinguish a coffee mug from a doughnut, since
a sufficiently pliable doughnut could be reshaped to a coffee cup by creating a dimple and
progressively enlarging it, while shrinking the hole into a handle.[1]
Homeomorphism can be considered the most basic topological equivalence. Another is homotopy
equivalence. This is harder to describe without getting technical, but the essential notion is that two
objects are homotopy equivalent if they both result from "squishing" some larger object.

Equivalence classes of the Latin alphabet in the sans-serif font

 Homeomorphism Homotopy equivalence

An introductory exercise is to classify the uppercase letters of the English alphabet according to

homeomorphism and homotopy equivalence. The result depends on the font used, and on whether
the strokes making up the letters have some thickness or are ideal curves with no thickness. The
figures here use the sans-serif Myriad font and are assumed to consist of ideal curves without
thickness. Homotopy equivalence is a coarser relationship than homeomorphism; a homotopy
equivalence class can contain several homeomorphism classes. The simple case of homotopy
equivalence described above can be used here to show two letters are homotopy equivalent. For
example, O fits inside P and the tail of the P can be squished to the "hole" part.
Homeomorphism classes are:

 no holes corresponding with C, G, I, J, L, M, N, S, U, V, W, and Z;

 no holes and three tails corresponding with E, F, T, and Y;
 no holes and four tails corresponding with X;
 one hole and no tail corresponding with D and O;
 one hole and one tail corresponding with P and Q;
 one hole and two tails corresponding with A and R;
 two holes and no tail corresponding with B; and
 a bar with four tails corresponding with H and K; the "bar" on the K is almost too short to
see.
Homotopy classes are larger, because the tails can be squished down to a point. They are:

 one hole,
 two holes, and
 no holes.
To classify the letters correctly, we must show that two letters in the same class are equivalent and
two letters in different classes are not equivalent. In the case of homeomorphism, this can be done
by selecting points and showing their removal disconnects the letters differently. For example, X and
Y are not homeomorphic because removing the center point of the X leaves four pieces; whatever
point in Y corresponds to this point, its removal can leave at most three pieces. The case of
homotopy equivalence is harder and requires a more elaborate argument showing an algebraic
invariant, such as the fundamental group, is different on the supposedly differing classes.
Letter topology has practical relevance in stencil typography. For instance, Braggadocio font stencils
are made of one connected piece of material.

History[edit]
The Seven Bridges of Königsberg was a problem solved by Euler.

See also: History of the separation axioms

Topology, as a well-defined mathematical discipline, originates in the early part of the twentieth
century, but some isolated results can be traced back several centuries.[2] Among these are certain
questions in geometry investigated by Leonhard Euler. His 1736 paper on the Seven Bridges of
Königsberg is regarded as one of the first practical applications of topology.[2] On 14 November 1750,
Euler wrote to a friend that he had realized the importance of the edges of a polyhedron. This led to
his polyhedron formula, V − E + F = 2 (where V, E, and F respectively indicate the number of
vertices, edges, and faces of the polyhedron). Some authorities regard this analysis as the first
theorem, signaling the birth of topology.[3]
Further contributions were made by Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Ludwig Schläfli, Johann Benedict
Listing, Bernhard Riemann and Enrico Betti.[4] Listing introduced the term "Topologie" in Vorstudien
zur Topologie, written in his native German, in 1847, having used the word for ten years in
correspondence before its first appearance in print.[5] The English form "topology" was used in 1883
in Listing's obituary in the journal Nature to distinguish "qualitative geometry from the ordinary
geometry in which quantitative relations chiefly are treated".[6]
Their work was corrected, consolidated and greatly extended by Henri Poincaré. In 1895, he
published his ground-breaking paper on Analysis Situs, which introduced the concepts now known
as homotopy and homology, which are now considered part of algebraic topology.[4]

Topological characteristics of closed 2-manifolds[4]

Betti numbers
Torsion
Euler
Manifold Orientability coefficient (1-
num
dim)
b0 b1 b2

Sphere 2 Orientable 1 0 1 none

Torus 0 Orientable 1 2 1 none

 Topological characteristics of closed 2-manifolds[4]

Betti numbers
Torsion
Euler
Manifold Orientability coefficient (1-
num
dim)
b0 b1 b2

2-holed torus −2 Orientable 1 4 1 none

g-holed torus
2 − 2g Orientable 1 2g 1 none
(genus g)

Projective plane 1 Non-orientable 1 0 0 2

Klein bottle 0 Non-orientable 1 1 0 2

Sphere
with c cross-caps  2 − c Non-orientable 1 c − 1 0 2
(c > 0)

2-Manifold
with g holes 2− (2g + c)
Non-orientable 1 0 2
and c cross-caps (2g + c) −1
(c > 0)

Unifying the work on function spaces of Georg Cantor, Vito Volterra, Cesare Arzelà, Jacques

Hadamard, Giulio Ascoli and others, Maurice Fréchet introduced the metric space in 1906.[7] A metric
space is now considered a special case of a general topological space, with any given topological
space potentially giving rise to many distinct metric spaces. In 1914, Felix Hausdorff coined the term
"topological space" and gave the definition for what is now called a Hausdorff space.[8] Currently, a
topological space is a slight generalization of Hausdorff spaces, given in 1922 by Kazimierz
Kuratowski.[9]
Modern topology depends strongly on the ideas of set theory, developed by Georg Cantor in the
later part of the 19th century. In addition to establishing the basic ideas of set theory, Cantor
considered point sets in Euclidean space as part of his study of Fourier series. For further
developments, see point-set topology and algebraic topology.
The 2022 Abel Prize was awarded to Dennis Sullivan "for his groundbreaking contributions to
topology in its broadest sense, and in particular its algebraic, geometric and dynamical aspects".[10]